The Straw That Broke The Camels Back.

I'm sure many of you have heard the phrase, 'the straw that broke the camels back.' What it means is, a camel was carrying a bundle of straw way to heavy for itself and so one more piece of straw being added to the bundle caused the camels back to break. That's all she wrote.

So what does this have to do with anything? Nothing really. Just kidding.

Sometimes we have to be broken in order to let go of something in our lives. Sometimes the tea kettle has to whistle before we realize the waters hot. And sometimes we have to be smacked in the face with a tree branch and get a splinter in our eye before we realize we are probably heading down the wrong path.

Please enjoy the following metaphorical story:

Once upon a time there was a girl named Leia who loved to swim with seals. The seals would splash her, give her piggyback rides, and bring her fish to eat everyday. She loved her seals but one of them was particularly angsty. Seabert didn't like Leia. He would splash her so hard it hurt her skin, he would bring her poisonous fish, and forget piggyback rides, he would take her down into the ocean so far she wasn't sure she'd ever reach the top and be able to breathe! But Leia put up with Seaberts behavior because she loved being with the other seals.

Inside, every time Seabert did something mean it made her mad. And the madness kept building up. Finally, Seabert did something that broke the camels back. Leia was playing with the other seals and Seabert came up to her and punched her in the face with a blowfish. Leia was so hurt and angry she told Seabert to leave now and never come back. So he swam off into the ocean. He came back several days later with an apology fish and asked Leia to forgive him. She did and Seabert was able to stay with the other seals and he and Leia had a mutual understanding to be nice to one another.

The moral of the story is: Sometimes we let things build up instead of letting them go or taking care of them early on. Leia could have avoided being hit in the face with a blowfish if she had confronted Seabert about his behavior early on. Sometimes we hang on to things for dear life because we are so sure we are on the right path or doing the right thing even though along the way the warning signs are blinking in our eyes and we keep getting hurt or jostled about.

After that its like we've been given plenty of warnings and now the only way to get our attention is to be slapped in the face with it. The straw that broke the camels back. The final confirmation that we need to turn around. Or the final confirmation is that we need to get something right.

I'm one of those people who will hang onto something until I know 100% if it's right or wrong usually ending in me being slapped in the face and redirected by God. It's not a terrible thing but it's definitely not the best way to go about things. When God's in it, you don't have to guess whether it's right or wrong. The doors are wide open and there's a peace there.

1 Cor. 14:33 For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches and saints.